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PROJECTS & COMPANIES
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GABON
NORWAY’S BW Energy revealed on August 9 that it had made new financing arrangements to help cover the costs of development at the Dus- safu licence area offshore Gabon.
In a statement, BW Energy explained that it had signed an international Reserve-Based Lending (RBL) facility worth up to $300mn. This long-term facility has an initial commit- ment of $200mn and can be expanded by up to a further $100mn, it explained.
It also reported that the secured facility was being provided by a syndicate of five interna- tional banks but did not name any of the lenders involved.
The company will have to repay the credit over a term of six years, it added.
Carl K. Arnet, BW Energy’s CEO, was quoted in the statement as saying that the additional financing would help support his company’s work in Gabon’s offshore zone.
“We are pleased to conclude the RBL which attracted strong interest from a number of inter- national banks and we welcome the support of
At the same time, construction and mechan- ical completion operations are being carried out on the floating LNG (FLNG) plant that will be installed at the gas hub, and commissioning activities have started.
As for the FPSO, Kosmos said, “mechanical completion loop checks continue and commis- sioning work has commenced.” Despite this progress, however, the Chinese shipyard where the vessel is being built has not been able to overcome the delays resulting from a lockdown imposed in April in response to a coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. As a result, the FPSO will not be finished by the end of the third quar- ter of 2022 as projected, but rather in the fourth quarter.
Even so, the postponement is not expected to change the date of first gas, the statement said. Gas extraction is still set to begin in the third quarter of 2023, with LNG production follow- ing in the fourth quarter of the same year, it explained.
According to other sources, the FPSO is being constructed at the Qidong shipyard, which is owned by China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO). The shipyard is building the vessel under contract with Technip Energies (France), which won an extensive engineering, procure- ment, construction, installation and commis- sioning (EPCIC) contract from BP for the GTA project in 2019.
Kosmos further stated that it was working with BP to optimise the value of GTA’s resources in light of current conditions on global gas mar- kets. With respect to Phase 1 production, it said, the partners will utilise their existing contractual rights so that they can divert cargoes to prospec- tive buyers in order to maximise their returns. And with respect to Phase 2 of the project, it noted, BP and Kosmos are working closely with the governments of Senegal and Mauritania to determine the best way to build on Phase 1 infrastructure for further development. The shareholders in the project aim to make a final investment decision (FID) on Phase 2 by the end of the third quarter, it added.
GTA, which straddles the maritime border between Senegal and Mauritania, holds around 15 trillion cubic feet (425bn cubic metres) of gas; enough to support an export-oriented LNG project as well as pipeline deliveries to Senegal’s domestic market. Kosmos Energy discovered gas at the block in 2015 and then teamed up with BP for the project in 2016. The two companies made an FID on Phase 1 of the project in late 2018.
To support LNG production, they have con- tracted Bermuda-registered Golar LNG to con- vert the Gimi LNG tanker into an FLNG vessel with a Phase 1 production capacity of 2.5mn tonnes per year (tpy). In Phase 2, GTA would double LNG production capacity to 5mn tpy.™
BW Energy secures up to $300mn in financing for Dussafu project
There are six discovered oilfields within the Dussafu block (Image: BW Energy)
our new lenders,” he commented. “The facility provides additional liquidity to finance our development of the Dussafu license in Gabon and drive future production growth and long- term value creation from this highly attractive oil-producing area.”
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 11•August•2022